


The Longest Shadows Ever Cast

by starandrea



Series: Sky Verse [11]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Baby Angels, Children, Dating, In-Universe RPF, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-10-08
Packaged: 2017-12-27 07:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/976274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starandrea/pseuds/starandrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean and Cas go on a date.  Sam and Gabriel babysit the angel kids, and they have a lot of visitors.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The story behind this story is longer than the story itself. So, the short version:  
> 1) [dc-summerlovin](http://dc-summerlovin.livejournal.com) had a challenge prompt "sex on the beach."  
> 2) this scene directly precedes [We Built This City On Rock And Roll](http://archiveofourown.org/works/337680).  
> 3) last week, tumblr celebrated Dean & Cas' five year anniversary.

"Cas," Dean yelled up the stairs.  "Babysitter's here!"

There was a rustle of wings from somewhere above him, but it was probably just the kids pretending to be kids.  No way had Cas gotten away from heaven that easily.  Jophiel and Rachel were both clingy lately, but Dean figured when you had warrior angels breathing down your neck that was kind of understandable.

Even if you were a warrior angel yourself.  Even if your husband was the most badass warrior angel of them all, and you never got to see him because the other warrior angels needed more direction than the children you were leaving with your built-in brotherly babysitter.  Then it was less understandable and more annoying.

"Dean," Sam called from the kitchen.  "Why is there never any food in your house?"

"Because you eat it all," Dean said.  "Cas!"

Adamel appeared first, wearing kitten pajamas and dragging a stuffed animal along with him.  Dean wished he had a camera.  Maribel and Wildfire were right behind him, also in pajamas, though Wildfire was the only other one carrying a toy.  How many cereal box cars did Jesse give her, anyway?

All of them, probably.

"Uncle Dean," Maia said, looking tiny and serious when she tugged on his hand.  "Gabriel said I should ask you what you're going to do with Castiel tonight."  

"I've already explained that you won't tell her," Sam said quickly.  The warning in his voice was clear.  "We had the whole talk about privacy and grown-up angel things."

Maia definitely understood that she wasn't supposed to have the information, and from the look on her face, she thought that was crap.  Smart kid.  "Gabriel said I should ask," she insisted.

On the other hand, using Gabriel as an excuse?  Not cool.

"You know what I'm gonna do with Cas?" Dean said.  It was worth it to hear Sam's exasperated sigh.  "I'm  gonna take him somewhere and say nice things to him.  Just like every Tuesday."  

Then he added, "If he ever shows up.  Maribel, where's Cas?"  

"Upstairs," she said, surprising him.  Either she meant it, or she was copying their slang, and he couldn't decide which was weirder.

"Cas!" he shouted, just in case.  "Don't make me pray!"  

"Kinky," Gabriel's voice said from behind him.  "Is that what the kids are doing these days?"  

"Use the door," Dean snapped.  So he teased Sam; so what?  Gabriel's definition of "child-friendly" was almost non-existent.  Most of them were too young for the therapy they'd need from repeated exposure to her.  

"Why?" Gabriel wanted to know.  "No one else does."  

"Because you're annoying," Dean said.  "That's why."

She beamed at him insincerely.  "Michael, you say the nicest things."  

"Yeah," he agreed.  "Just not to you."  

"Sam," Gabriel complained.  "You're brother's being mean."  

"Your girlfriend's talking about sex around the kids," Dean called.  

"I hate you both," Sam said, abandoning his quest for food to join them at the bottom of the stairs.  "Someday Cas and I are going to run off and leave you to your stupid prank wars, and then where will you be?"

Gabriel scoffed.  "Please, you wouldn't last a day without me."

"Says the woman who got kidnapped to a dream world," Sam retorted.  "One shiny thing, and your ability to tell reality from fantasy is completely gone."

"You're very judgmental for a man who likes Pandoran tailjobs," Gabriel said.

Dean gave up.  Pushing past them on his way up the stairs, he tried to ignore Maribel's unmistakable curiosity.  They couldn't read Sam's mind, but he was sure they got way too much information from Gabriel's.

 _Definitely not appropriate kid conversation,_ he thought.  Maribel hadn't technically asked, but she shouldn't have to, right?  _Check with Claire.  Invite Jesse over if you want._

The older kids were at least a little more normal.  They weren't exactly human, but Claire wasn't all angel and Jesse wasn't all demon.  Dean's standards were a lot lower than they used to be.

"Cas," Dean said, pushing open their bedroom door.  "If I have to listen to--"

Cas was actually in there, which should have surprised him more than it did.  He was too busy being startled by what Cas was wearing to notice.  "Is that a t-shirt?"

It was a stupid question; of course it was a t-shirt.  He just couldn't remember seeing Cas wear one before.  Cas was also barefoot, which Dean liked but probably hadn't told him, and Cas knew it anyway so why was he still up here?

"I thought a change of attire might be appropriate."  Cas didn't look awkward about it.  "Is this acceptable?"

Dean felt himself smile, because Cas changed his clothes once a week if he remembered and he'd only asked Dean's opinion twice.  Well, three times if they counted the wedding.  Four including today.  Okay, sometimes he asked, but not often, and Dean hadn't been able to decide whether it was weird to randomly compliment an angel's clothes or not.

"Very acceptable," Dean told him.  "I like the look.  Ready to go?"

"Yes," Cas replied, wings rising behind him.

"Wait," Dean said quickly.  "Not this time."

Cas paused.  Dean glanced over his shoulder, checking that no one had come up the stairs behind him.  They were still at least nominally alone.

"I figure," Dean said, and maybe he was the one who was awkward here, "someone goes to the trouble of getting dressed up for you, you don't make 'em take their own ride.

"We're driving," he added, in case it wasn't clear.

Cas didn't point out how impractical that was when their destination was an island in the middle of the ocean.  He didn't say that he wasn't really driving anywhere.  He didn't even mention how little work it was to will a t-shirt into existence.  He just said, "All right."

Dean fought back another smile, because they still had to say goodnight to the kids and walk past the hecklers on the way out of the house.  "All right then," he echoed.  "Let's go."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of the events in [We Built This City On Rock And Roll](http://archiveofourown.org/works/337680) happened between the previous chapter and this one. (Canon!Castiel went to visit FrenchMistake!Jensen, and on the way back to his own universe he got intercepted by RandomAU!Gabriel who gave him RandomAU!Dean (whom RandomAU!Gabriel had made look twelve years old) and sent them to the Sky Verse for the night.)
> 
> So in this chapter, the characters talking are:  
> 1)SkyVerse!Sam  
> 2)SkyVerse!Gabriel  
> 3)RandomAU!Dean (young)  
> 4)Canon!Castiel (season 6)  
> 5)FrenchMistake!Jensen

Everything Gabriel did was annoying.  It was just a matter of degree, and Sam knew this from personal and mostly bitter experience.  So the fact that she occasionally sat on the couch and watched TV without complaining, throwing things, or altering the fabric of reality would always be suspicious.

When she leaned against him and let him put an arm around her shoulders, though, he was willing to overlook it.  He expected to regret that decision, but hope sprang eternal.  Maybe this would be the time she didn't screw with him.  Maybe this time they would just... watch the movie.  

"Hey, Dean," Gabriel said.  Sam felt himself tensing.  "When did Sam get the dog?"  

The kid in the armchair didn't look at her.  "After the thing with the Valkyries," he mumbled.  "Suspiciously close to the time you came back from the moon.  Or wherever."  

Sam tried to call to mind any firsthand knowledge of Valkyries and failed.  He wasn't the only one.  

"I recall no recent incident involving Valkyries," Castiel said.  

"Does your Sam have a dog?" Gabriel wanted to know.  

Castiel frowned.  "No."  

"Then I don't care," Gabriel told him.  

Dean did, apparently, but he cared about everything Cas said so that didn't mean much.  "What about the thing with TV land?" he asked.  "When he trapped us in a game show?"  

"Oh, yeah," Jensen said, proving that he was paying attention to more than just Rapunzel singing.  "I remember that."

"If you mean the time Gabriel locked you in a warehouse and forced you to play through a variety of popular media simulations or face death," Castiel said, "then yes.  Our reality was similar."

"I'm sure she wouldn't have killed us," Sam said.  It seemed like a long time ago now, and he knew the kids were listening.  Too closely.  "I mean, she needed us to say yes to Michael and Lucifer."

"Little did I know," Gabriel muttered.  

"So it was after that," Sam said quickly.  "Right?  You end up at Ellen's for the dragon thing?"

He figured that was an easy one - Dean loved the dragon, after all - but all he got was a young and very convincing blank look.  "The what now?"

"The dragon," Sam said.  "Ellen came to Bobby's because of the whole, um…"  And he really didn't want to go there again, so he just said, "Demon thing, and Cas was there by the time I--"

It obviously wasn't ringing any bells, and he didn't want to rehash the Ruby aspect in front of an audience, so he said, "Hey, what about the future?  That trip to the fake future, courtesy of Zachariah?"

"Yeah," Dean said, frowning.  "Did that.  Didn't want the t-shirt."

"No," Castiel said, surprising him.  "You were elsewhere when that occurred, Sam."

That was a pretty quick turnaround, Sam thought.  They'd all seen TV land, but not messed up future land?  There'd only been, what, a day or two between them?  They hadn't even done anything in between; he had no idea how a universe could turn on a few idle hours.

"Wasn't that before TV land?" Jensen asked.  "Or did we air those out of order?  If we're looking for differences, how can something be different when something after it's exactly the same?"

"That was after it," Sam said.  "Cas came to get us when we didn't show up for dinner or something.  I remember because he was extra pissed at Zachariah after Gabriel--well."  After Gabriel disappointed him, but they probably didn't need to go there again, either.

"Dinner?" Castiel repeated.

"It wasn't afterwards," Dean repeated.  "It was before, and Cas is right.  You weren't there."

"Not the first time," Sam said.  "Just the second."

"You went twice?"  Jensen looked impressed.  "What happened the second time?"

"Dean tried to shoot me," Sam told him.  "Well, imaginary future Dean.  The real Dean held him off until Cas could rescue us."

"Cas rescued me," Dean said, "but I didn't go again."

"So we're out," Gabriel interrupted.  "That's our universe, all neat and tidy.  Separated because Cas was expecting you for dinner.  Still doesn't explain how Sam got a dog."

"He wouldn't have been able to rescue us if Zachariah hadn't sent us again," Sam pointed out. "Cas must have done something to make Zachariah mad."

"Yeah, he existed," Gabriel said. "I don't know if you've noticed, but Zach's not the most stable archangel in the shed."

"You said we were to share a meal," Castiel pointed out. "At the time, Zachariah was keeping a closer eye on me than I realized."

Maribel said, "It was because of the pie. That's what your Gabriel thinks."

She looked like she was watching TV. All the kids did, except for Jesse, who must have learned staring from angels, and Claire, who kept darting glances at them that she probably thought were subtle. Sam was sure the younger kids didn't do it only because Dean always changed the subject when they made it obvious they were watching.

"What pie?" Castiel wanted to know.

"Dean and Sam took you out for pie," Maribel said. "After TV land. Then Zachariah impersonated you, and you rescued them, so they were still at Bobby's when Ellen came by about the dragon."

So it was a tradeoff, Sam thought. They were teaching angels to lie, but they were also teaching them to volunteer information. Dean would probably say it was worth it.

"Note to self," Dean said. "Pie really can save the world."

"Told you so," Jensen muttered.

"Hello," Gabriel said. "Dog!"

“What about Anna?” Dean asked Castiel.  “When she went after our parents.  Did you help us stop her?”

“I transported you back in time,” Castiel said.  “I was of little use beyond that.”

Dean scoffed.  “Dude, you made it possible,” he said. "We couldn't have done it without you, so I think you were of use."

"Wait, back up," Sam said. "What did Anna do?"

"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to," Gabriel told him. "It's like you never learn."

"She attempted to remove Lucifer's vessel from the equation by ensuring you were never born," Castiel said.

"Wow," Sam said. He felt Gabriel shift restlessly, and he couldn't decide whether he hated or admired that plan. "Okay."

"Hasn't shown her face since," Dean added. "She might be dead. Who can tell with angels."

"If Gabriel gave you the dog," Jensen said, "isn't it more important when you saw him? Or her?" he added, gaze flicking from Sam to Gabriel uneasily. "Did he get you out of that place with the gods? The Asylum Fields or whatever?"

"The Elysian Fields," Castiel said. "Gabriel died there."

There was a long moment of silence. On the screen, the horse and lizard were glaring at each other. Sam didn't want to do anything stupid, but Gabriel didn't even react and he'd lost her too many times. He found her hand, well aware that he would be mocked mercilessly for squeezing it. He did anyway.

Gabriel didn't say anything.

"That sucks," Dean said at last. "Ours didn't. Guess that's the difference."

"How did you evade Lucifer?" Castiel demanded.

"I dunno, Sam pulled his sacrificial shield routine and Gabriel powered him up." Dean shrugged, spoon clinking against his empty ice cream bowl as he dropped it on the floor. "Me and Kali were running; I didn't see most of it."

"Gabriel used Sam as a vessel," Castiel said.

"Yeah." Dean glanced at them. "Creepy as fuck, if you ask me, but it worked. And now Kali thinks she owes us, so that's handy."

"Who's Kali?" Sam asked.

"Gabriel's old flame." Dean seemed unconcerned that Gabriel's new flame was right there, but then, his brother couldn't manage "sensitive" on his best day. "Hot goddess of the east."

"So, about that dog," Gabriel began.

"You already have a dog," Sam reminded her.  "We barely see it.  Why do you want another one?"  

"My dog is small and annoying," Gabriel snapped.  "You don't even like it."  

"Since when?" Sam asked, taken aback.  Who knew what he'd said wrong this time. It wasn't like she ever told him - even long after it would have been useful.

"Yeah," Dean put in. "Sam obviously likes small and annoying."  

"Sure," Sam countered, before Dean could make it worse.  "Look at Dean."  

"Hey," Dean complained. He glared at Sam out of a face that was younger than Sam ever remembered him being.  "This is temporary!"  

"That's a matter of perspective," Sam told him.  "Gabriel, I'd probably like your dog a lot more if it was ever around. Bring back your dog before we talk about mine."

"Fine," Gabriel said. There was a yip from the kitchen, and the black and white terrier came scrambling out and made a beeline for the couch.

"Fine," Sam echoed. The dog jumped onto the couch and curled up against Gabriel's hip like this happened every day. The kids mostly ignored it, which probably meant they'd all be fawning over the dog the second he turned his back. 

He caught Dean and Jensen exchanging glances, which was hilarious. Jensen even looked at Castiel, which was still weird. But Sam hadn't forgotten Jensen's question from when they'd first arrived.

"Yeah," Sam told him. "We're pretty much always like this."


End file.
